The Two Way Mirror
by shadesofstory
Summary: Maura goes missing, and Jane struggles to find her before it's too late. But when she has to choose between saving Maura's life or her own, the odds are more stacked against them than ever before.
1. Chapter 1

The alley where Detective Jane Rizzoli had chosen to make her stand smelled like the brine of the ships that docked in the harbor nearby. She leaned her head back against the damp bricks and took as deep a breath as her damaged ribs would allow. She had always known that she would probably go down fighting crime in Boston. It was her job. It was her home. But Jane's best friend was trapped in the building she was leaning on. So today would not be the day Jane would fall.

She checked the radio on her hip again, more out of habit than hope. Not surprisingly, it had splintered when Royez kicked her down the stairs.

"Well," she thought to herself, "when I let him kick me down the stairs."

But, in her defense, he had tricked them all really, even Korsak. After all, Mark Royez came across as the perfect victim at first- scared and grieving. His brother had been brutally murdered in what everyone assumed was gang retaliation. It wasn't until Royez's cousin showed up dead that Jane had begun to suspect the hispanic college student. The unassuming collector of two life insurance claims.

Jane wiped her lip and spat the blood out of her mouth. She needed to stop taking so many faces shots, it was making her mother even more neurotic than usual to see her only daughter constantly coming home with fat lips and black eyes. Four in the past month alone, and she would be lucky if she didn't pick up a couple more that night. The rising gang violence by the docks was keeping her concealer busier than usual. To top it all off, as if her mother wasn't enough to deal with, the Chief Medical Examiner of Massachusetts, who also happened to be Jane's best friend, insisted on coming every time Jane followed up a lead on the wharf lately.

A rising panic at the thought of Dr. Maura Isles forced Jane to clear her mind. Maura was in there. With Royez. They had caught them by surprise when they got there. He had been packing. He still managed to pull his gun first, however, and he held the doctor at gunpoint while he had backed Jane up to the stairs. His dark eyes betrayed no emotion as he landed a well-placed kick to her ribs and sent her toppling down three flights. Luckily, the old wood had rotted enough to soften the fall to a non-fatal although still extremely unpleasant tumble.

The scream that ripped through Maura as Jane fell echoed through the detective's thoughts as she prepared to re-enter the building. She drew her gun, and eased the door open. Royez already knew she was there, although she assumed he thought she would at least have been knocked unconscious from the fall. She smirked. Maybe he wasn't as clever as he thought.

As quietly as possible, she made her way back up to the third story. Royez was probably planning on holding Maura hostage while he made his get away, apparently via boat. Well, that wasn't going to happen. Not while Jane still was still breathing.

She swung through the doorway with the lithe grace her long limbs offered, but she saw only the dusty twilight of an abandoned room. Royez was gone. And he had taken Maura with him.


	2. Chapter 2

Jane abandoned all caution and rushed into the empty room. Maura was gone.

She repeated to the words to herself, but it didn't make them feel more true. Maura was gone. No, she had just been here. She had just screamed Jane's name as the detective fell down the stairs. That couldn't be the last time Jane heard the voice of her best friend. She could almost hear that voice now, telling her some useless piece of information. On the way to the docks, for example, Jane had received a history lesson.

"Did you know that Native Americans actually used the port of Boston long before it was settled by John Winthrop in 1630?" Maura had asked her less than an hour earlier.

"I'm not sure I even know it now, Maura. I stopped listening as soon as you started your sentence with 'do you know."

Maura pursed her lips. "Well, since you usually listen to my tidbits with such rapture, I'm sure that means you've got something more important on your mind."

Jane snorted. "Yes. I'm thinking that I'm starving because I haven't eaten since lunch. I'm also thinking that us driving out to the docks after dark because the family member of two of our victims told us he needed to show us something sounds like a trap."

"It would be a bit of an obvious trap, don't you think?"

"And yet we're on our way."

"Oh," Maura said, her eyes brightening, "so you're assuming that since it would be too obvious as a trap, he must actually have something to show us?"

Jane sighed and pulled up between two out of commission buildings, one of which matched the address Royez had given her. "Actually I'm just assuming that since you insisted we take your non-police issued car out here you're paying for my burger as soon as we're done here.

Jane bit back her rising panic. Maura was gone.

Meanwhile, at the precinct, Detectives Frost and Korsak squabbled about who would win the upcoming Superbowl. Their paperwork for the murder of Royez's cousin, Christian Montenegro, sat on their desks. The pages were already well read, and the murder board was full of theories.

"You know what your problem is, Korsak?" Frost asked, swiveling around in his desk chair, "you've got no sense of art. The Buffalo Bills have never won a Superbowl. Not once. I would have thought you would have been the kind of guy who cheered for the underdog."

Vince Korsak adjusted his not insignificant girth and stood up. "I do cheer for the underdog."

"Until you realize it's not a literal dog?" Frost flashed his charming grin.

"You wanna keep acting like a punk kid all day or do you wanna solve a murder?"

Frost shrugged and grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair. "You know what, I think I can do both at the same time. It's this newfangled thing. You might have heard of it. Multi-tasking."

Korsak shook his head. "It's 9:30 and we haven't heard from Jane or the doc in over an hour. I think it's time to go see what's happening down at the wharf."

"That is kind of odd," Frost said, holding his phone to his ear, "Jane's cell went straight to voicemail."

"Let's go."

In the Friday night traffic of Boston, it took the two detectives almost twenty minutes to make the cross town trip to the docks. Jane didn't know they were coming. Royez had taken Maura's car. Her cell phone had been inside of it. She ran desperately searching for a few minutes after she found the strength to leave the empty room, but the pain in her ribs and the knowledge that Royez was already long gone slowly ate away at her motivation.

Her best chance to help Maura was to get back to the precinct, she knew that. But for some reason she couldn't bring herself to leave the last place she had seen her friend alive. She trudged back up the stairs of the warehouse. She sat down on the wooden floor of the empty room. And finally, numb and tired, she closed her eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Jane woke up in the hospital. She was furious with herself for passing out, for wasting the time she knew was so precious at the beginning of an abduction case. Ignoring the pain in her head and abdomen, she swung her feet out of the bed and onto the ground. Cracked ribs and a concussion weren't enough to keep her from searching for Maura.

"Jane Rizzoli, you get back into that bed right now."

Startled, Jane spun toward the voice. Her mother, the epitome of the Boston Italian mother, was standing in the corner of the room, her arms crossed dangerously.

"Ma," Jane said, not bothering to hide the impatience in her voice, "it's Maura. You know I can't stay here."

Tears filled Angela's dark blue eyes, but her tone remained steady. "I know, Vince told me what happened. But they've got everyone out there looking for her, Janie."

"Not everyone."

Jane forced her heart rate to stay in check as she dressed and left the hospital as quickly as possible. She couldn't think about what could be happening to Maura right then. She couldn't think about how her friend's eyes clouded over when she was afraid or how her normally endearing habit of spouting trivia became almost robotic under pressure. Jane couldn't think about Maura or she would lose her mind. So she thought about Royez instead.

Mark Royez, 23, was the seemingly innocent bystander at two brutal gang murders. The first happened four days ago. Royez's brother Scott had been working on the docks and disappeared on his break. Six hours later, Royez found him with a cross shot into his chest. Ballistics had determined a 9 mm handgun was the murder weapon. The cross was a signature of the Pandilla de los Cielos- the Gang of Heaven. Jane, along with Korsak and Frost, had been given the case with orders to keep the guns and gangs squad in the loop. Because of that, Jane had been begrudgingly reunited with Detective Rafael Martinez. Lieutenant Cavanaugh had been especially glad to have his help because he was bilingual and because, Jane thought, he was an ass kissing tool.

Unfortunately, he was the smart ass kissing tool that first caused Jane to doubt the Gang of Heaven's connection with the murder of Scott Royez.

Jane and Maura had been sitting at the Dirty Robber when Martinez casually plopped into their booth, beer already in hand.

"Buenas tardes, ladies," he said, smiling at them through his perfectly trimmed beard. "I have an insight that you might be interested in, Janie."

Jane immediately prickled. "Don't call me Janie, Martinez. And we don't need your help, but thanks for the offer. Do come again."

Maura kicked her under the table. "Now, Jane. There's no reason to scare the detective away before he's finished his drink or explained his new clue."

"His new clue?" Jane repeated, incredulously. But she relented. "What do you want?"

Martinez's smile grew. He twinkled his eyes at Maura momentarily before reverting his attention back to Jane. "Pandilla de los Cielos didn't kill Scott Royez. No way."

Jane raised her eyebrows. "That's quite a 'new clue,' Detective. Any evidence to back that up?"

He shrugged. "The Gang of Heaven is smart, Janie. They became one of the biggest gangs in Boston for a reason. Now, I'm not saying they don't kill- because they do. But why pick some 25-year-old nobody dock worker and make an example out of him? He had been in the Triple B gang since he was like 17, and he never made anything of himself in that organization."

"So basically your argument is that the Gang of Heaven couldn't possibly have killed him because he wasn't ambitious enough to make their hit list?"

"Si, amor. That's what I'm saying."

Jane took a swig of her beer. "Well, shit Martinez. If I ever need a defense lawyer remind me to look you up."

Maura frowned. "Language, Jane."

Martinez chuckled. "Just think about it, okay?" He tapped his temple with his beer bottle, and slid out of the booth. "I'm not all beauty, you know?"

"You know Jane, he could have a point. Murdering one man like Scott Royez does seem like an awfully large risk for that gang to take."

Jane waited until she was sure Martinez was out of hearing distance before she answered. "Unfortunately, I think you're right. Which means he is, too."

Jane replayed the conversation in her mind on her way to the precinct. Her phone had rung several seconds later. Frost called to tell her there had been another murder by the harbor. Her phone sat silently now though. It wasn't Frost she needed to talk to anyway. It was Maura.

From the beginning, Martinez had understood the psychology of this case better than Jane had. She didn't like to admit the need for help, but if there was a situation desperate enough for her to swallow her pride, this was it.

She picked up her cell. He was still on speed dial.


	4. Chapter 4

For once, Detective Martinez wasn't wearing his cocky grin when he sat down across from Jane in her booth at the Dirty Robber. It was after midnight, and she had changed her mind about going back to the precinct that night after she decided to ask for help from her old rival. Frost and Korsak already had enough ammo to tease her with.

"I'm sorry about Maura, Jane," Martinez said. His face looked pale and drawn, Jane noted somewhat surprised. He actually seemed worried.

"We're going to get her back."

He nodded. "I know."

"She's still alive."

He nodded again. "She's a smart woman, Janie. She can beat the odds."

Jane forced down the tears that threatened to come, and grabbed the pile of paperwork from the table to keep her hands from shaking. Martinez noticed. "You okay? I heard you took a fall at the crime scene."

"If by 'took a fall' you mean the jackass kicked me down three flights of stairs, then yeah."

A smile slid across Martinez's face. "That's what I usually mean when I use the phrase took a fall."

Jane couldn't help smiling back, just a little. But then her expression returned to the stone it had been before. Her dark eyes glinted with anger. "I need your help, Martinez. You know I wouldn't be asking, but-"

"But it's Maura. Yeah. So what can I do?"

Jane's shoulders relaxed slightly. "You can tell me about Royez. I interviewed him a couple times, but he wasn't officially a suspect. You talked to him more because of his affiliation with the Triple B Gang."

Martinez nodded. "From what I could tell, he seemed like he wanted out of the life. He had just started at a community college in the city, and he told me that the Triple B gang let him go without much of a fight."

Jane frowned. "That doesn't seem likely."

"That's what I said. But he told me he made some kind of a deal with them, and that was it. He was free."

Jane pressed her hands against her forehead. "Okay. So he was done with the Triple B's and going to school in the city. What possible motive could he have had for killing his brother?"

"Other than collecting the life insurance claim?"

Jane nodded. "Other than the money. I still think that's a likely motive, but if that was why he killed him then why bother framing the Gang of Heaven?"

Martinez shrugged. "He knew his brother was in the Triple B's. He knew the Gang of Heaven was a rival. Maybe he was worried without an obvious killer the cops might suspect him right off the bat."

Jane nodded.

"Janie, you already know all of this," Martinez said. "I'm not quite vain enough to believe I thought of all this before you."

"It helps to talk it through. Besides, none of this explains his cousin. Except, again, he would get the life insurance. Which in the case of Montenegro wasn't very much."

Martinez sighed. "I can't help you much there. I mean, his cousin, Christian Montenegro, was a part of the Triple B's, but he hadn't been active in years. In fact, he had just been paroled from prison three months before he was killed."

"I know. But you talked to these guys, in their native language. You monitored their behavior. I need to know what you know that isn't in these files."

"Janie, you know I want to help you."

There was no relent in Jane's expression. "Then help me."

"When I talked to Mark Royez, I believed he wanted out of the gang life. But I didn't believe it was because he was a good guy who had just made some bad decisions."

"What do you mean?"

"He seemed... ambitious. Like he wanted out of the gang because he wanted something bigger."

"Bigger like what? I need more, Martinez!"

Martinez put his hands up. "I don't know, Janie. None of this has any backing; it's just my gut talking."

Jane sighed, almost visibly deflating. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm just tired."

"You don't need to apologize to me. Your best friend is missing."

"I just have to find her, Rafael," Jane said, her voice dropping to a whisper without her meaning it to. "I have to find her."

Martinez reached across the table and covered Jane's slender fingers with his own thicker ones. "You will. If anyone can find her, you will."


	5. Chapter 5

Jane woke up the next morning less than an hour after finally willing herself to go to sleep. The Boston morning greeted her with a steely wind and cast iron clouds. Her body felt as heavy as the sky looked. She had her conversation with Martinez on a loop in her brain. He believed there was something more than greed motivating Royez. He thought something bigger was happening. But he didn't know what.

Neither did she.

Because, as infuriating as it was, her brain seemed only to be able to process one, incontrovertible fact: Maura was gone.

"Hey," Frost said, approaching Jane as soon as she walked through the doors of the precinct. "Jane, your mom told me you checked yourself out of the hospital last night against medical advice."

She stared at him, her dark eyes unflinching. "And?"

"And I would have done the same thing if it you was you who had been taken." He offered a muted version of his usual smile and handed her a venti dunkin' donuts coffee. "We'll get her back."

Jane nodded, the ice in her eyes cracking by a degree. "What do we got, Korsak?"

The older detective stood at the murder board, shifting his gaze from one victim to the next. Maura's face was now next to Christian Montenegro's. It was the same picture that was on the badge labeling her as the Chief Medical Examiner of Massachusetts. Maura's green eyes stared out at Jane through the picture. Her sly smile suggested the more mischievous side of her personality, which is probably why the doctor had never liked it.

"It's unprofessional," she said, when she first got it from human resources.

Jane grabbed it out of her hand. "Your last one looked like a mug shot. This is an improvement."

Maura took it back. "It did not. My last one was very Dr. Isles-esque."

Jane shook her head. "Well, this one is very Maura-esque." She glanced at her friend, who looked back with some degree of genuine consternation about the picture. Jane gave in. "I like it."

"Really?"

"No, it's unprofessional."

"Jane!"

Jane laughed, her raspy voice echoing around the sterile ME lab. "Yes. I like it."

The memory melted back into the picture taped onto the board. The word missing was written above it. Jane had to turn away.

"Well, up until last night we weren't sure about who killed Scott Royez and Christian Montenegro, only that they were cousins and they were killed within two days of each other."

Jane paced back and forth. "But Royez was shot. Montenegro died of a meth overdose, which only got ruled a homicide because Maura realized his blood alcohol level was too high for him to have been conscious when the fatal dose hit his system."

Korsak jumped in. "The gunshots and the meth both pointed toward the Gang of Heaven- the pattern of the wound for Royez and the fact that the Gang of Heaven is the biggest meth dealer in the city for Montenegro."

"Right. And after Mark Royez took Maura last night, we went to his apartment. We didn't find any physical evidence tying him to the murders, but-"

"But since he abducted our ME, we're pretty sure he's guilty."

Frost nodded. "Right. We're going over his alibis right now. But what we still can't figure out is why he would take Dr. Isles."

"We also don't understand why he would call you out there saying he had something to show you, and then act surprised when you got there," Korsak added. "It doesn't add up."

Jane ran a hand through her already disheveled hair. "I've been thinking about that too. It's possible he was planning on showing us something that would have thrown us off him. Some sort of continued frame against the Gang of Heaven, maybe."

"But you got there too fast?"

"Or somebody ruined his plan before we got there, and he panicked."

Frost bit his lip. "But that still doesn't explain why he took Dr. Isles."

"Maybe what he was going to show Jane and the doc was supposed to be some sort of security blanket. A distraction so he could get out of the country. When it fell through, he needed a different sort of insurance. So he took Maura."

Jane sunk into a chair and lowered her head into her hands. "Maybe. But all this is just a theory. We have nothing to back it up."

She paused. "We have nothing at all," she added under her breath.

Jane's desk phone rang, and the three detectives all jumped. She picked it up immediately. "Rizzoli."

"Detective? This is Senior Criminalist Chang in the ME's office. "You need to get down here. We just realized there's been a... miscalculation on one of the autopsies."

Jane's heart rose to her throat. "What kind of miscalculation?"

Senior Criminalist Chang didn't answer the question. "I'm not sure how relevant it will be, Detective. But I think you should come down here right away."


	6. Chapter 6

Maura woke up in a boiler room of one of the abandoned factories by the docks. She could tell because the smell of the ocean wasn't entirely doused by the overwhelming stench of ammonia. She slowly sat up and looked around.

It appeared that Mark Royez was not only adept at kidnapping but also at chemistry. Or at least turning boiler rooms into drug labs. Three long tables were covered in vials, bottles and scales. She recognized the acetone and batteries right away- based on the current evidence she could conclude the liklihood of meth being produced here was extremely high.

She turned her head and caught movement to her left side. Maura whipped that direction, and her breath caught in her chest as relief sunk in. A huge mirror lined the south wall of the room, and she stared at her own reflected version of herself, crumpled and small among the contents of the home made lab. Her feet were chained to the table behind her, but her hands had been left untied. Royez had been careful, though, she noticed. No instruments or chemicals were within her reach.

Suddenly, a door behind her opened forcefully. Mark Royez walked into the room. He was still in the same clothes he had been wearing when she and Jane had confronted him earlier, before he had kicked Jane down the stairs. The sudden thought of Jane made Maura's stomach clench in fear for her friend. If she hadn't been badly injured in the fall, which Maura desperately hoped was the case, then she would be looking for her.

Royez pulled a syringe from a drawer near the door he came through. Panic fluttered in Maura's chest, and she instinctively backed away, as far under the table as she could manage. He clicked his tongue at her, tapping it against his teeth. She froze.

"Dr. Isles," he said, "I need your help."

And he moved toward her with the syringe.


	7. Chapter 7

Jane took Frost to the basement with her. She told herself it was because he could help figure out whatever it was that Chang wanted to show her. But both detectives knew, as Jane's finger trembled slightly as when she pushed the down arrow, it was because she didn't want to go to the ME's lab alone. Not when she knew that her best friend wouldn't be waiting for her on the other side of the sterile glass doors.

"So what did Chang say again?" Frost asked, breaking the silence.

"Not much," Jane responded, her voice sounding robotic even to herself. "Just that she found something we needed to see."

The doors dinged open, and the two stepped out into the hallway. Jane braced herself for the fact that Maura was not here, not this time. The basement lab suddenly felt much colder. Shuddering involuntarily, she followed Frost into the room where Chang stood at a computer bay next to the body of Christian Montenegro. She looked up when she saw them, adjusting her glasses nervously.

"Detectives," she nodded. "Good morning."

"Hi Suzy," Frost responded, offering a small smile. "What do you got for us?"

Chang glanced at Frost, but her focus remained mostly on Jane. "Detective, I've been over these results half a dozen times, and the fact is Christian Montenegro did not die of a meth overdose."

Whatever Jane may have been expecting, that news was not it. "What do you mean? Maura said the reports came back positive on fatal amounts in his system."

Chang nodded. "Fatal amounts, yes. But not of meth. To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure what the substance was that killed this man. At least, I'm not sure this particular combination has a street name yet."

Jane frowned. "So Montenegro did die of a drug overdose?"

"Yes."

"But not an overdose of meth?"

"Something very similar to meth. But no, not the drug itself."

Frost glanced at the computer screen. "So... Montenegro was using a new drug?"

"As far as I can tell, that seems to be correct. He would have died minutes after it was injected, maybe less."

"Well, where the hell did he get it? Or, actually, where did Royez get it? And why did he kill his own cousin with it?"

Frost sighed. "The money theory is seeming less probable."

"Chang," Jane said, "would trace amounts of this same drug have shown up on the normal CSU sweep?"

The senior criminalist shook her head. "Most likely not, since it isn't a substance within our log system."

Jane turned to Frost, feeling a surge of hope for the first time since waking up in the hospital. "Frost, get back to Royez's apartment and take CSU. We have to figure out if the ass just came across this stuff and decided it would make a handy murder weapon, or if this is the break we've been looking for and he's creating it."

Frost grinned. "I'm on it."

"Chang, is there any way of knowing if Scott Royez took this drug before he died?"

"Sure. I would have to run a special tox screen on his blood because we normally wouldn't test for this, but if he's taken it the last week or so it should show up."

"Do it. Let me know what you find out."

Jane turned and strode back toward the elevator, a steely determination replacing the fear that had threatened to cripple her just moments before. If Mark Royez was making the new drug, he would need start up money, which he would get from his brother's life insurance. He would need to discredit the Gang of Heaven, his biggest competition and closest competitor. If he threw the gangs into a blood feud, the city's methheads would look somewhere new for a dealer. Maybe he figured not only could he be that dealer, but he could sell them on a new drug. One similar to meth, but with stronger results.

Jane knew there were still missing pieces of the puzzle, but once again the laboratory of the ME had proved invaluable to her investigation.

"Thank you, Suzy," she called before the elevator doors shut.

Chang waved a little in return. "We need her back down here, Jane," she answered.

Jane nodded as the doors shut.

Alone in the elevator, she let her eyes fill with tears for the first time all day. "Did you hear that," she whispered to the universe, "we need her back."


	8. Chapter 8

When Jane got back to her desk, Martinez was waiting for her.

"Rizzoli," he said, reverting to calling her by her last name at work. "I've been going back over the different guys we've had OD in the past few months. There have been six deaths in the last eight months. Four of them were from meth."

Jane nodded.

Martinez smirked. "Or at least what we thought was meth. When I saw the lab report show up on Montenegro I decided to go back and look at the tox screens of my dead guys. Guess what?"

"Same inconsistencies?"

Korsak turned toward them from where he was still looking at the murder board. "So the same drug?"

"Exactly." Martinez grinned. "Our boy Royez has been killing people with his new chemistry project. But, when I looked into the background of the junkies who OD'd, it wasn't Royez's name that popped."

Jane frowned. "Then whose was it?"

The room waited in silence for a few seconds while Martinez had his moment. He paused for effect and then slammed his hand against the mug shot of Christian Montenegro on the murder board. "It was this son of a bitch. He was in prison for drug trafficking. He got out and boom, whole new client base courtesy of his cousin."

Korsak grunted. "Maybe. But then that same cousin turned around and killed him? Why would he do that?"

Jane shook her head. "That doesn't matter right now. We have to focus on getting Maura back."

"That's what we're trying to do, Janie."

She glared at Martinez. He put up his hands in surrender.

"Fine, Rizzoli. But the point stands. That's what we're trying to do."

"Jane, if we can figure out this case then that will almost certainly lead us to Maura."

Jane slammed her hand down on her desk in frustration. "We're running out of time, Vince! Maura is out there now. Royez has her now. We've been over his financials a hundred times, but has anyone checked Montenegro's? If they were making this stuff then they had to have a place to work."

Martinez nodded. "I would give you Frankie to check financials, but he's undercover. Where's Frost?"

"I sent him to Royez's apartment to check for traces of this new drug. If he was making it, some of it would have come home with him."

"Okay, looks like all hands on deck. I'll check financials," Martinez said.

Jane nodded. "I'll talk to Montenegro's sister, and see if she knows anything about what he and Royez had been doing lately."

She slipped into her suit coat and headed out the precinct door. "If anything comes up-"

"We'll let you know," Korsak and Martinez finished in unison.

Twenty minutes later, Jane was knocking on the door of Tia Montenegro. Her apartment was in a newly revived area of Boston, and it looked nothing like the dilapidated factory they had found her brother's body in.

Jane's hopes dipped. This woman had her life together. What were the chances her brother told her about his life as a drug trafficker.

An attractive woman in her mid-thirties answered the door. She wore her dark hair loosely curled around her face and she held a toddler on one hip.

"Hello," she said, smiling tentatively. "Can I help you?"

Jane flashed her badge and smiled back. "Hi. I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli with the BPD... do you think there's any way I could come in for a few minutes?"

The woman's pleasant expression faded. "Is this about Christian? Did you find out who killed him yet?"

"Well, actually we were hoping you might be able to help us answer that. If you have just a few minutes, I promise this won't take long."

Tia nodded and moved aside. Jane followed her into the kitchen and sat down across the table.

"I'll try to help however I can, Detective," she said. "But I honestly don't know very much about Christian's life anymore."

"I understand. How many times had the two of you spoken since he was released from prison?"

Tia sighed. "Every week. He used to call on Sunday nights and ask to talk to Benny."

She motioned to the toddler, who was staring at Jane with his dark eyes dwarfing the rest of his tiny features.

Jane smiled. "I'm sure that was a meaningful tradition for both of them."

Tia nodded, her eyes filling with tears. "You have to understand, Christian wasn't a bad man. He started using drugs in high school, and by the time he got clean he had been fired from any job that would give him a chance."

"Is that what got him started dealing?"

"I guess. It was the only job he felt like he was really good at. I probably shouldn't be saying it this way- I don't condone his behavior at all, of course- but he was a natural salesman. Our mother used to say he could have sold trash in a dump."

"Do you happen to know if he was in contact with your cousin, Mark Royez?"

"He was," Tia nodded, "I know he was. They were both devastated when Scott was killed. Markie was smart and like I said, Christian was a salesman. They were starting up some kind of chemical solutions company together down by the docks."

Jane's heartbeat rose to her throat, but she forced her voice to stay steady. "Did they purchase an office or a factory in that area recently?"

Tia shook her head. "Oh no, neither of them had enough money to do something like that. They were using my grandfather's old factory there. My grandfather, he's not related to Mark, but he told Christian he believed in second chances. He told him that he could use the bottom two floors to work on his new business."

Jane abruptly stood. "Do you have an address for that building?"

"Yes," Tia said, scribbling it down on a notepad. "This is it."

Jane grabbed the paper and ran to her car. If they were holding Maura somewhere in the city, it had to be there.


	9. Chapter 9

Maura leaned away from the needle, her blood pressure escalating with her panic.

"What do you want?"

Royez grinned. "Until you and that bitch detective came around, I just wanted to get the hell out of this city."

Maura frowned, her logic unable to yield to her fear. "But you called Jane. You told her you had something to show her."

"Yeah well, that was before I found out my cousin had already told the Gang of Heaven about our little operation. It sort of screwed up my plan to frame them, you know?"

"Frame them for what?"

"For Christian's murder and for Scotty's. But more importantly, for the massive amounts of poison that mi primo and I had been selling on the street. We thought we created the next meth. Instead, we made a drug that's way too powerful for the human body. You take it, you die. So I had a change of plans."

Maura adjusted her feet so her high heels weren't digging into the back of her thighs. If she was going to die, she could at least do it comfortably.

"Your change of plans included kidnapping the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts?"

Royez shrugged. "Not exactly. But in the ten minutes I had to come up with a backup plan to bailing out of here, I realized you and that cop you were with go everywhere together. And I realized you're a doctor. So you can fix my recipe."

Maura's expression was bewildered. "Excuse me?"

He threw a pen and a notebook of chemical formulas at her feet. "It's only a matter of time before the cops figure out I have access to this building. Meth labs accidently blow up all the time though, right? So here's what I'm thinking. You have until my paranoia starts acting up to fix my new drug so it's addictive but not lethal. You give me the recipe, I set you free, blow up the lab and disappear. You don't give me the recipe and I blow up the lab with you in it and then disappear."

"Mark, I'm not a chemist. I've never worked with these materials in this context before."

He shrugged. "It's up to you whether or not to figure it out. But I should warn you that my whole life people have been telling me I'm a pretty paranoid guy."

He knicked the needle across Maura's collarbone, leaving a thin line of blood.

Maura set her jaw. "And I should warn you that the detective who was with me earlier is my best friend. She will not stop looking for me."

Royez turned back, the door already open. "Then you better get working. Or what she'll find will be a pile of ash in a fancy dress and high heels."

Sixty seconds later, after Maura had been attempting to pick the lock around her ankles with the tip of the pen, Royez stuck his head back in the door.

"You see that mirror, bitch? It's a two way. I can see you. So, like I said. You better get working."


	10. Chapter 10

Jane left a voicemail for Frost on the way to the factory by the docks. She didn't let herself imagine all the awful things she could find when she got there. She forced out the memories of hundreds of bodies that she'd seen through her years as a homicide detective. Every time she pictured a crime scene, her brain kept putting Maura's face on the body. But she couldn't be dead.

"Please," Jane thought, "Don't let her be dead."

It was mid-afternoon when she pulled up next to the building. She tried to stay as calm as possible. Quietly, she drew her gun and entered the building.

Jane cleared the main floor, and then took the stairs down toward the boiler room. An old mirror reflected her tall form back at her from the south. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears. A sudden creak on the stair behind her startled her, and she whirled around, gun ready.

There was no one there. She turned back just in time to see a board slam into the side of her head.

When she came to, the first thing heard was Maura's voice. For a second, she worried that the blow had killed her and they were both dead. But then a nauseating pain seared through her head and her surroundings came into focus.

"Jane," Maura whispered, crawling toward her. "Jane please wake up. Please wake up."

Slowly, Jane forced her eyes open. She was on the floor of a boiler room that looked like it had been turned into the ME's lab at the precinct. Equipment was everywhere- vials, bottles, even an old oven. She reached for her gun out of habit- it was gone.

"Jane," Maura said, reaching toward her. "Are you alright?"

The detective forced herself to sit up. Her relief at seeing Maura alive doubled her resolve: she was going to get them out of here. She let herself take in the details of her best friend's face. Her dark blonde hair was more ruffled than usual, but after almost 24 of hours of being held hostage it still looked better than Jane's. Maura's green eyes searched Jane's face with equal intensity.

"You're alive," Jane said at last, biting down the emotion rising in her throat. "You're alive."

Maura smiled. "I knew you would find me."

Jane looked around the room. "Lot of good it did me. This wasn't exactly the heroic entrance I was hoping for."

"You'll always be a hero to me," Maura whispered. She cleared her throat. "But this time, I'm the one who has to get us out of here."

Jane frowned, and then winced, the small movement hurting her tender face. She touched the side of her head where the board had it and her fingers came back bloody. "What do you mean?"

But Maura was distracted. "Small laceration," she said, examining the cut on the side of her best friend's head. "Significant bleeding and probable concussion."

"Great," Jane answered darkly, "that's two in two days. If I keep this up they'll stop letting me play in the department softball league."

Maura raised her eyebrows. "That would decrease the risk of head injury for everyone. You remember when you green beaned Detective Moore in the head when he was playing short stop?"

Jane laughed despite herself. She realized it was the first time she had since Maura disappeared. "Just beaned, Maura. Not green beaned."

"Either way. I'm sure he wouldn't object to you having to sit on the injured list for a while."

The door banged open, interrupting their conversation. Jane felt fresh fear clench in her chest.

"Detective," Royez said, staring down at her with contempt. "I see you decided to join us."

Jane smirked at him. "I couldn't miss the party. Not when I hear you're launching a brand new street drug."

Royez bounced on the balls of his feet. "That's right, Detective. But there's been a change of plans. The good doctor here attempted to fix my recipe- I think it's time to test the results. Now that you're here I'm sure it's just a matter of time before this building is swarmed. Unfortunately, drug labs blow up all the time. This one's going to in about seven minutes."

He pulled a syringe out of the inside pocket of his coat.

"Detective," he said, moving toward Jane, "one of you is going to test out the doc's new recipe and come with me. If it doesn't work, you'll OD. The other one gets to stay here and tend the kitchen. So, I'll leave it up to you."

He looked at Maura, and then back at Jane. "It's time to decide, Detective. Lethal injection or chemical explosion?"


	11. Chapter 11

Maura felt her breath catch in her chest. The equation she had given Royez had been a rough draft at best, certainly not something she would ever feel comfortable testing on human subjects. She looked at Jane. Never something she would allow to eat into the veins of her best friend.

"Inject me with that," she said, feeling more clarity than she ever had in her life. Jane could get away. She could find a way out before the explosion. But the drug was an automatic death sentence. And, judging from the ingredients, a painful one. "I mean it, Mark. Give me the drugs."

Jane's face was pale, but when she spoke her voice was sure. "No."

Royez swiveled, obviously delighted at the scenario unfolding in front of him. "I did say I would let the detective decide, Doctor." He faced Jane. "So, what'll it be?"

Maura couldn't stop the panic from building inside of her. She knew what Jane would choose. And there was nothing she could do.

"Inject me," Jane said, her voice hollow. "Inject me, and leave Maura here."

Royez shrugged. "You know there's actually a chance this won't kill you, right? How would you feel if you picked the needle and survived while your friend got blown to pieces?"

"That's not going to happen," Jane growled. "You told me to pick. So give me the drugs."

Royez knelt down in front of her. He grabbed a fistful of her tangled dark hair and ripped it back, leaving her neck vulnerable.

"No!" Maura screamed, pulling desperately at the chains around her ankles, not caring that the metal cut into her skin. "No! Leave her alone. Please, please."

"Maura," Jane said, tipping her head as far forward as possible to catch her eye. "It's going to be okay."

And then Maura watched- part of her brain recognized that as impossible as it seemed it had to actually be happening- as Royez thrust the needle into Jane's neck and squeezed the syringe dry. Jane sat still. She didn't flinch. And then, just as the tip of the needle left her skin, she struck.

In one gut-wrenching motion she slammed her forehead into Royez's mouth. He lurched back, spewing blood, and Jane kicked his feet out from under him. She wrenched the syringe from his hand and jammed it into his left eye before he could stop her. He rolled and roared, screaming in agony. Maura watched, her brain too overwhelmed to react.

Jane reached into his pocket to grab the keys that would open her and Maura's handcuffs, but by that point Royez had regained some control. He grabbed her wrist and twisted, sending the keys flying into the corner. She yelped in pain and pulled back. Royez pushed himself away from her, pulling a gun out from the back waistband of pants.

He hadn't stopped screaming. The needle was still in his eye, blood pouring down half of his face. "You bitch," he shouted, waving the gun at her. "You shouldn't have done that."

He turned, pointed the gun at Maura, pulled the trigger and ran back out the door up the stairs.

The gunshot drowned out the sound of Jane's scream.

Maura still hadn't moved. The shock of Jane's sudden attack against Royez hadn't fully sunk in when she saw him turn toward her, gun in hand.

Her brain managed to complete some calculations before the the bullet buried itself in her ribcage. She knew at point blank range, she would be hit within .1 seconds of the trigger being pulled. She knew the origin of the word point-blank came from France in the 18th century. She knew it would hurt. But she didn't realize how badly.

Pain ripped through her abdomen like liquid fire, and she heard her breath leave her body in a whoosh. There was a louder sound in the background though. She hadn't managed to focus on anything but the trajectory of the bullet as it broke apart her ribs and punctured her right lung, but the background sound was distracting. She looked up.

Jane's face was contorted into an expression that Maura had never seen on it before. The pain in her eyes mirrored everything Maura was feeling.

And the sound, Maura realized. The sound was her best friend screaming.


	12. Chapter 12

"Maura!" Jane couldn't say her name enough to stop the bullet from hitting her. She couldn't protect her from the feeling of heated steel tearing into her flesh. She knew what it felt like. And she thought the pain of watching Maura go through the experience would kill her before the drugs had time.

She could feel the meth doppleganger oozing through her system, spiking her heart rate and blurring her vision. Royez was gone. They had less than seven minutes to get out of the building. Jane looked at Maura. Maura looked back, pain etched in her face.

Jane had to find the key. Crawling forward on her hands, she ignored the fact that the room seemed to be spinning around her. Suddenly, Maura was talking.

"Jane," she said, her voice barely a whisper, "the drugs will make it difficult for you to see."

She tried to answer, but no sound came out. She nodded and let her sole focus remain on one more foot forward, one more foot toward the key.

"It's about four feet away from you, to the left. It's by the wall. You won't be able to reach it because of how you're chained up, so I'm going to toss you this pen. Try and loop it through the key ring and pull it toward you."

Jane stopped struggling against her chains and turned back toward Maura. Each time she moved, the room spun like her head was on a top. She bit back her building nausea and faced her friend. "Maura." Her voice was slurred. She tried again. "Maura. He shot you."

"Gunshot victims have an 80% chance of survival, Jane. My odds aren't too bad."

"I can't see very well."

Maura nodded. "That's the drugs impairing your brain's communication with the optic nerve. I'll try and toss the pen as close to you as possible. Just listen to my voice."

"Okay."

"Okay," Maura grunted. "It landed about a foot away from your right hand."

Jane nodded. "I'm high, Maura, not blind."

Maura's weak laugh turned into a gasp of pain. "Maybe no more jokes for the time being."

Finding a strange lack of willingness in her fingers to obey her brain, Jane managed to roll the pen toward herself. She was sweating with the exertion, every part of her body was shaking. But she picked up the pen. As quickly as she could, she moved it toward the corner of the room, where the key ring glinted. Her first attempt wasn't even close.

"That was a good try, but it's a bit more to the left. Your spacial awareness will be compromised."

"No shit," Jane said, and heaved herself into a somewhat more workable position. Slowly, she pushed the pen into the grip of her quivering fingers and shakily pushed it through the key ring. The edges of her vision slid in and out of darkness. Just as slowly, excruciatingly so, she brought it back. Unlocking the chains around her ankles required another Herculean effort. She finally sat back, soaked in sweat and shivering violently.

"Maura," she slurred, sliding her friend the keys, "Maura I can't get us out of here."

"Yes, you can," she answered, the pain no longer hidden in her voice. "I just unlocked myself. You can get us out of here."

A small, warm hand suddenly covered Jane's shaking one. She opened her eyes. Maura put her hands on both sides of Jane's face. "You can get us out of here, Jane Rizzoli. You're my best friend, and I believe in you."

Jane tried to smile but her muscles felt like jello. "I love you, you know that?"

Maura nodded. "I know."

"Good. Because this next part is going to hurt like hell."

Taking one last shaky breath, Jane forced herself up onto her hands and knees, and then onto her feet. She grabbed Maura by the shoulders and hauled her up, supporting almost her entire weight. She ignored Maura's cry of pain as she put pressure on the bullet wound and half dragged her away from the table where she had been chained. She kicked a box out of the way and pulled open the boiler room door. Air filled with the smell of the ocean drifted towards them, and Jane lifted her face to it.

She pulled them both up the stairs, one step at a time. Maura was too weak to walk, but she helped push when she could, using the walls and steps for leverage. The women collapsed at the top and heard a sound that had never been more welcome- sirens.

Jane wiped the sweat out of her eyes and looked down at Maura, who was wrapped in her arms. "I can't get us any farther."

Maura reached up and tucked a stray piece of hair behind Jane's ear. Her voice was soft. "That's okay."

"No, it isn't okay, Maura. I promised I would save you. I have to save you."

Maura smiled. "I haven't really had very many friends in my life, you know."

Jane managed a weak chuckle. "You don't say."

"They all thought I was... different. Some of them called me creepy."

Jane focused on her own breathing. Her voice seemed to have stopped working again.

"You saved me every day, Jane Rizzoli," Maura murmured. "You made me feel loved. You gave me a family. You already saved me."

Jane smiled, and covered her friend's hand with her own. "You saved me too."

The building was set to explode in under a minute. The door was feet away. But the detective and the medical examiner stopped moving and fell silent.


	13. Chapter 13

Frost found Jane holding Maura thirty seconds later. He burst into the building and on first glance he thought they were dead. His heart dropped to his stomach and his gag reflex, already overly active, threatened to overtake him.

He shook his head and pulled himself together, rushing forward.

Maura opened her eyes, just the tiniest bit. Jane didn't stir.

"Frost," she whispered. "The building is going to explode. We have to get out of here, now."

Korsak burst through the door, gun raised.

"We have to get them out now!" Frost shouted, pulling Maura into his arms. "Korsak, help me get Jane. The building's about to blow."

The two men managed to lift Maura and Jane and haul them out of the building and behind their waiting police cars.

Frost wiped the sweat from his forehead. Maura, who he was still holding, was bleeding heavily enough to soak his shirt. He looked back at the factory, and then suddenly- it was gone.

A massive explosion rocked through the basement, shattering the glass windows out toward the street. Fire poured from every opening and the heat threatened to sear the skin on Frost's face.

"Get down!" Korsak shouted, "Get down and take cover!"

Frost ducked behind the back wheel of his unmarked, leaning over Maura to cover her from any shrapnel that might happen to fly from the quickly collapsing building. The fireball had engulfed the first three floors, and bricks were falling almost as fast as ash.

"You okay?" Frost shouted.

"Yeah," came the gruff reply. "But these two need a hospital, now."

Frost nodded, once again wiping away his sweat. His hands came back black with ash. "Hold on, Maura," he said softly. "Hold on. We've got you. You're going to be alright."

When Maura's eyes fluttered open six hours later, she was laying in a hospital room. She could hear the beeping of her heart monitor echoing through the sterile room. A lethargic warmth seemed to have filled her whole body, except for a dull pain pulsing on her right side.

"Hey," said a raspy voice.

Maura tried to twist toward the voice, hoping so much it was Jane, but the dull pain turned sharp so fast it made her gasp.

"Maura, don't do that," Jane said, grabbing her friend's hand. "You don't want to tear your stitches and cause scarring. Honestly."

Angela Rizzoli swatted Jane's free arm. "Janie, don't you tease her right now. She just woke up."

Maura smiled and slowly turned to see the pair sitting next to her bed. They were quite a contrast- Jane with her unruly dark hair and beautifully defined face and Angela with her endearing smile and warm eyes. Meeting them on the street, Maura might not have guessed they were mother and daughter, but it only took a few seconds of talking to either of them before anyone would realize they were related.

"You're supposed to be in a matching hospital bed, Jane," Maura croaked, slightly taken aback by the sound of her own voice.

Jane shrugged. "I'm still in the gown, aren't I? Anyway, it turns out your little recipe must have worked, but they have me under observation for the next 24 hours anyway."

"And you won't be leaving one second before that," Angela added, frowning at her daughter.

"I know that, Ma. I have a feeling I'll be staying a little longer anyway to keep an eye on Maura."

Fatigue was circling again, and Maura's eyelids started to feel impossibly heavy. "I don't know what kind of company I"ll be. I can't seem to stay awake for more than two minutes at a time."

Jane smiled, leaning forward. "You're here, Maura. You're alive. That's all the company I could ask for."

Maura drifted back to sleep with a smile.


	14. Chapter 14

Two hours later, Martinez knocked lightly on the doorframe of Maura's hospital room. He motioned Jane out of the room.

"Hey, Janie," he said, offering a tired version of usual grian. "Just thought you'd want to know that we got the guy. Royez is under arrest in a hospital across town."

Jane nodded. "Good. I hope that son-of-a-bitch enjoys the rest of his one-eyed life behind bars."

Martinez chuckled. "Oh, I'm sure he'll do his best to continue his drug trade from jail."

Jane shuddered. "Let's hope that fails."

"The dose didn't turn you into a junkie, huh?"

Jane shrugged. "You know, I think I'll stick with beer."

"Oh, really?" Martinez's grin widened, and he pulled a six pack from behind his back. "I thought you might say that. And, in case you're hungry, pizza is on the way."

Jane raised her eyebrows. "You brought me beer and ordered pizza? You know I'm in the hospital, right?"

Martinez shrugged. "Si, Janie. And I also know that you never followed the rules anyway. You've been here enough to know which ones you won't get in too much trouble for breaking."

Jane looked into Maura's room. Her best friend was asleep and stable. Her mother was sitting an armchair in the corner, also asleep. And a man who she once thought of as a rival was offering her two of her favorite foods. She returned Martinez's shrug, and sat down in the chair outside Maura's door. She offered Martinez the one next to her.

"Well, I'm not going to turn down free pizza. And I think I've earned a beer."

He cracked open a bottle and handed it to her, raising his eyebrows. "Oh really? Just one?"

Jane looked at the six pack.

"Well," she took another glance into Maura's room. "Maybe two."


End file.
